The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-09-10
MISS BETTY"
The Important Things That Hap
pened to Her.

Of course I can't expect you to love Miss
Betty as I did-beautiful little woman with
her soft blue eyes, silver hair, and a smile
as calm and sweet as ever graced the lips
of a 'maiden LADY, who was far enough
advance n life TO have left the tur- Aud
,tlca SIS OF youth far behind her After
the confusion and hustle that always
regned in our household, with papa for
ever busy, the boys coming and going, and
we girls, occupied first with school books,
then with millinery, and all the interests
that keep family of young people con-
stantly in state of excitement and COM
notion a visit to Miss Betty in her quiet
home seemed like an entrance into some
cool retreat, where peace and calm and
comfort always dwell.
Only two things had ever really happened
to MISS Betty, and it was not until the
morning of her fortieth birthday that the
second thing happened. Had not this great
event occurred l should have had no story
to tell-Miss Betty would have been an ex-
ample of those lives, or is it nations? which
people say are happy in that they have no
history. But in this case the saying would
have been untrue Out of that second oc-
currence in her monotonous life, out of the
tumult and trepidation ushered in with that
fortieth birthday has CROMWELL love
story, which l am determined to spoil by
not telling it properly.
Miss Betty had of course, been born
like other people; she had struggled
through the measles and the humps, and,
like so many of the bright lank and scrag-
gy daughters of our land, at the age of
nineteen she had developed into a very
pretty young girl
1t was at this stage of her experience
that the first thing happened. Naturally,
the event took the shape of q lover. John
Mcintosh, manly, wellbred youth of
twenty-three, the son of a neighboring
farmer, had cast sheep-eyes at Miss Betty
during lively evening at singing school.
Miss Betty had cast down her eyes and
blushed furiously. But all the same she
liked to have John look at her in that way,
and John found it out. The result was
that the two young people fell in love with
each other.
Then came the Squire to the front. The
Squire was Miss Betty's father. Just what
had gained him the title it would be diff
cult to say. He owned few more acres
than any body else within the township,
and had once come very near being made
Justice of the Peace. The distinction real
ly fell to a retired physician living in the
out of the prospective dignity chung to
Squire Perkins. He himself valued it as a
Duke does his strawberry leaves.
When the Squire learned that John Nc
1ntosh had actually had the audacity to
fancy that he might be allowed to marry
Miss Betty, his wrath was beyond control.
lie stormed and he pounded, he stamped
and he roared. There threatened to repeat
Itself in the old mansion the scene that had
taken place in Miss Betty's teething days,
when the Squire's only son George had
asked permission to marry dainty little
blue-eyed girl, the daughter of a seam
stress. George had stood his ground, pock-
eted his fathers curse, and gone proudly
forth never to return. Miss Betty was
made of different material. She went, &C
cepted the inevitable, and sent two dried
rose-buds and three little ill-written notes
back to John Mcintosh in a sandalwood
box. He put the box in his pocket went
TO the nearest seaport, and shipped for
Shanghai. Then peace returned to the
Squire's mansion, and Betty settled calmly
down into the business of becoming an old
maid.
The years came and the years went Her
features grew sharper, and her hair thinner;
there was even suspicion of rheumatism
swelling her finger joints Betty grew old
nothing happened, and she had begun to
fancy that nothing ever would.
There was a slight break in her life one
day. when party of neighbors' came in and
carried the old Squire to the churchyard,
and laid him by the side Of the wife he had
worried out of existence three months after
Betty's birth. In many homes a death
makes great overturning. But in this one
the current OF life was scarcely disturbed.